Salt Lake City Shooting Causes Rock-Throwing Riot


Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski asked police to release “as much information to the public as possible” on Sunday after the Saturday night shooting of a teen, reports USA Today.

“The use of force by law enforcement against the public can tear at the delicate balance of trust between both sides, and must be taken extremely seriously,” Biskupski said in a statement released late Sunday.

The shooting reportedly prompted a night of anger and rock-throwing. Witnesses of the shooting said police shot and wounded a teenager who is from Kenya. Selam Mohammad, 19, told local news outlets that an officer shot his friend four times. Local TV stations later identified the victim as Abdi Mohamed, 17.

Salt Lake City Police said two officers were involved in the shooting and were wearing active body cameras in a statement released Sunday. The footage was reportedly turned over to investigators for further inspection. The officers involved in the shooting were placed on “routine administrative leave” pending the result of the investigation.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the victim was in surgery and in critical condition as of Sunday.

Shortly after the attack, by-standers began to throw rocks at police officers. “A lot of people are yelling, ‘they shot an innocent kid,'” a KSL-TV reporter tweeted. Nearly 100 officers, including a few from other law enforcement agencies and some carrying riot shields, responded to the area, KSL reported.

According to witnesses and police, the shooting was preceded by an altercation among a group of people. Officers in the area on an unrelated call were alerted to an “assault in progress,” then “tried to engage [the] altercation,” according to a statement the Salt Lake City Police Department issued via Twitter.

Witness Mohammad told The Salt Lake Tribune that his friend [the victim] and a man were in the middle of a confrontation. He said his friend was holding part of a broomstick at his side when officers arrived on the scene.

“They told him to put it down, once,” Mohammad said, and they “started shooting him as soon as he turned around.”

Mohammad claims the police fired four times and that the teen was hit in the chest and stomach.

“he barely even turned around, then boom, boom, boom – and he just dropped,” Deseret News reported.

In a statement released on Sunday, Salt Lake City Police said officers “witnessed two males with metal objects attacking a male victim.” They then confronted the pair and ordered them to drop their weapons. “One of the males complied and dropped the weapon, the other continued to advance on the victim and was shot by officers.”

According to officials, four others were arrested during the confrontation that followed the shooting.

In her statement, Mayor Biskupski said that while the shooting was still under investigation, “there is no doubt what happened is a tragedy for all involved and for our entire city.”

Biskupski asked police to release as much information as possible without compromising the integrity of the investigation. She also asked Police Chief Mike Brown “to reach out to members of the young man’s family, as well as meet personally with members of the police reform community as soon as possible.”

Saturday’s shooting was the third “significant use of force incident” for city police in the last month, Biskupski said. “This morning, I had a serious conversation with Police Chief Brown and members of his team to review details about each of these incidents, including a discussion on training and whether de-escalation efforts could have been implemented.”

[Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]

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